Abramoff and Friends

Yesterday Casino Jack turned into a canary and started leaking (through "sources close to the investigation") information about campaign contributions, gifts and other assorted indescreet contacts with "six to eight seriously corrupt Democratic Senators" — and Karl Rove.

Today Harry Reid is being fingered, and it looks like a rehash of the stuff John "Consider the Source" Solomon wrote for the AP earlier this year:

As convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff reported to federal prison today, a source close to the investigation surrounding his activities told ABC News that Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) was one of the members of Congress Abramoff had allegedly implicated in his cooperation with federal prosecutors.

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A source close to the investigation says Abramoff told prosecutors that more than $30,000 in campaign contributions to Reid from Abramoff's clients "were no accident and were in fact requested by Reid."

Abramoff has reportedly claimed the Nevada senator agreed to help him on matters related to Indian gambling.

The Associated Press reported earlier this year that Reid wrote at least four letters helpful to the tribes that had contributed money to his campaign.

Brian Ross, who has been doing the digging on this, is also the reporter who broke the Mark Foley story on the ABC News blog, "The Blotter." I admit I was deeply skeptical when it was only Solomon, but everybody who didn't think the newly elected Senate Majority Leader would be on the list when the news broke yesterday that Abramoff might be getting ready to implicate a few Dems say "aye."

(*crickets*)

A little campaign finance reform that liberated politicians like Hillary Clinton from spending $30 million (catering and flowers?) to defeat the Mayor of Yonkers could go a long way toward draining the allure out of this particular swamp.

Jane Hamsher

Jane is the founder of Firedoglake.com. Her work has also appeared on the Huffington Post, Alternet and The American Prospect. She’s the author of the best selling book Killer Instinct and has produced such films Natural Born Killers and Permanent Midnight. She lives in Washington DC.Subscribe in a reader